Hoo.
I sat cross-legged and evened out my breathing. The breath I exhaled still carried qi I hadn’t managed to gather.
What a waste.
Circulating qi meant drawing in energy from outside, cycling it together with my internal energy, and accumulating it. But only a small amount remained in my body.
Most of it returned to nature.
In novels, you could shoot up just by doing a little of this.
The greatest martial arts under heaven? An elixir of the ages?
Not here. The Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique was Peak-grade, but it was hopeless at accumulating internal energy. And elixirs? Bullshit. I hadn’t even gotten a look at one. All I’d done was suffer like hell.
Is that my only hope?
Another mass of internal energy crouched in a corner of my dantian. If I could make all of it mine, it would be a huge help in the fights ahead.
The problem was that no matter how many times I tried, it wouldn’t budge.
Move. Move!
As if the thing that had sat there like a boulder this whole time was going to start moving. I tried drawing up my internal energy, but it gave me nothing. I sighed and got to my feet.
“Are we leaving?”
Hyuk Mujin had been watching our surroundings.
“Yeah.”
“Understood.”
Then he briskly got the reconnaissance squad ready and scooped Soyul into his arms. I stared at him in disbelief.
What the hell did this bastard eat?
Why had he suddenly gotten so efficient?
This was the guy who used to move only when I shoved a fist in his face. Somehow, he seemed like a different person.
Not that I’m complaining.
I shoved the stray thoughts aside and slung Gong Yacheong onto my back. As the poisoning worsened, his face had turned a dark blue.
Hyuk Mujin asked worriedly, “Will he be all right?”
“He has to be.”
I’d already done everything I could. All that remained was to hope Gong Yacheong held on. I muttered to the unconscious man.
“Not much farther. Just hold on a little longer.”
Sunlight squeezed through the dim dawn. I took a long stride toward it.
No—I started to.
- Awoooooo!
At first, I thought it was the wind. But those were the cries of living beasts. Hyuk Mujin muttered,
“The wolves must be hungry.”
“Wolves?”
“Of course. It’s hardly strange for there to be wild animals in the mountains.”
This was a game set in ancient China. It wouldn’t be strange for wolves or tigers to leap out from anywhere. I’d heard wild animals crying more than once over the past few days.
But…
Something feels off.
This wasn’t like the others. Just hearing those howls made my chest tighten and my fingertips tingle.
The gut I’d honed over seven years seemed to whisper. Something was beyond that forest, where the sunlight hadn’t reached yet.
“Prepare for battle.”
“Then we’re leaving now… Huh?”
“Form a defensive formation.”
Hyuk Mujin quickly recovered and relayed my order. Three reconnaissance squad members carrying shields clad in thin iron blocked the snow-covered path.
A narrow trail and the high ground atop a hill. We had the advantage.
- Awoooooo!
A second howl rang out. Closer—and all the more ominous for it. Hyuk Mujin spoke carefully.
“It sounds like nothing more than a pack of wolves…”
“Then that’s even better.”
“Won’t this delay us too long?”
I shook my head. We’d been fleeing for two full days. If this brief pause was what got us caught, then it was fate.
“Hold. We’ll wait a little longer.”
The beasts seemed to understand me. For the next fifteen minutes, the howls continued without pause, drawing ever closer. Snapping branches and paws racing over the snow shattered the stillness of the mountain at dawn.
“Doesn’t sound like one or two.”
Hyuk Mujin glanced at my face.
“From the sound, there must be dozens… Wolves are pack animals, but this is strange.”
No sooner had he finished than the pack emerged. Maybe they hadn’t been able to find prey in winter; most of them were so gaunt that their ribs showed. But they were still predators. We couldn’t let our guard down.
Hungry predators, at that. The kids could get hurt.
And yet, contrary to my thoughts, I felt oddly relieved. The place might be crawling with martial artists, but surely even the beasts hadn’t learned martial arts.
Forget gut feelings—these were easy opponents.
I skip a few raids and my touch is completely gone.
I clicked my tongue and stepped forward. The dozens of wolves charging toward us already looked like chunks of EXP.
“Let’s wrap this up. Yeah?”
I crooked a finger at the wolf leading the pack in the distance. Judging by its size, that one had to be the leader.
- Grrrraaaah!
Since when did a wolf roar like a lion? Don’t tell me it was some kind of spiritual creature? Was I seriously going to lose to an animal?
Not happening.
I swallowed and raised my spear. I couldn’t afford to lose the battle of wills, so I glared hard and lowered my voice.
“Come.”
The effect was incredible!
- Grrrrr…
The charging wolf suddenly veered aside and plunged into the forest. Its dozens of subordinate wolves poured after it.
No—they had fled. A cold wind swept across the countless pawprints stamped into the snow.
What the hell?
They came running like they were going to eat me alive. Why run away?
Then a certain famous comic popped into my head. The one about a rubber man with hyperactivity disorder smashing the maritime authorities.
“D-don’t tell me it’s that?”
That ability that could terrify enemies—and even knock them unconscious—with qi alone.
This game was insane enough for it to be entirely possible. In which case, the System ought to ping me right about now…
Ding.
There it was! Buzzing with anticipation, I waited for the System voice.
Ignoring the reconnaissance squad members’ bizarre expressions, I muttered over and over.
“Come on, come on, come on!”
It appeared.
The Quest Window.
System
A Quest has been created.
Quest
Jopil, One Question, One Kill
The relentless chase has come to an end. You have come face-to-face with these cruel and tenacious pursuers, and you must confront Jopil, One Question, One Kill.
May you rest in peace… No, may fortune favor you in battle.
Grade: Peak
Limit: Jin Taekyung
Task: Survive — Incomplete
Reward: ???
Failure: Death
You do not have the authority to choose this Quest.
The Quest has been forcibly accepted!
“…Huh?”
What was happening? Where was I, and who was I?
Countless questions flashed through my mind and vanished. Then I heard someone’s voice.
“We finally meet.”
A man stood beside a gaunt tree, more than twenty zhang away.1 Far if you called it far, close if you called it close. The problem was that none of us had known he was there.
Not even me.
When the hell did he…?
The higher my Level and martial realm rose, the sharper my five senses became. And yet I still hadn’t detected that man. I hadn’t even heard his footsteps.
If he hadn’t spoken first—if the Quest Window hadn’t appeared—I would have turned around without ever knowing he was there.
The wolves.
Those beasts had fled. Not from me, but from that man.
The unease that had plagued me since earlier finally took shape. I didn’t even need to use Qi Sense.
I already knew his name.
“Jopil?”
The man—Jopil, One Question, One Kill—smiled broadly and nodded.
I had met three Peak masters so far.
Jin Wikyung, Wipeng, and the Head Elder. All three looked the part. Jopil, One Question, One Kill, did not.
He looks ordinary.
He wasn’t a giant like Jin Wikyung, didn’t have sharp eyes like Wipeng, and hadn’t grown a silver beard like the Head Elder.
Jopil was of average height with an unremarkable face—and that made him look even more dangerous.
“Nice to meet you.”
The instant Jopil smiled brightly and stepped forward, I sprang back without a second thought.
“Nimble. Good reactions, too. I like you.”
My heart hammered. Maybe it was the tension, but my voice came out hoarse.
“Don’t come any closer.”
“Sorry about that. I was so happy to see you that I got carried away.”
I wasn’t happy at all.
“Don’t be so tense. I only want to talk.”
“Talk?”
“Yes. I’ve been wanting to meet you.”
From Jopil’s perspective, he probably had. He’d lost twenty men just a few days ago.
Fuck. I’m fucked.
The thought of a master like that chasing me day and night for two days just to tear me apart made my stomach turn.
“Don’t give me that bullshit, Jopil!”
When I shouted, I felt the air freeze behind me. Jopil smiled as though he already knew what I was doing.
“What difference will telling them who I am make? Second Rate, Third Rate. They’re all idiots and trash.”
He’d read the reconnaissance squad’s level exactly. I almost wondered if he was using the System too.
“Why don’t we have a brief conversation? There’s a great deal I want to ask you.”
“A conversation? You’re not just buying time?”
“Buying time? What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. You’re waiting for your men.”
As if I’d hit the mark, the bridge of Jopil’s nose twitched. Right. I didn’t know why, but he was alone. If I was willing to take a few losses, it might be enough to…
“Waiting? Me? For those pathetic weaklings?”
“…What?”
“Didn’t I already tell you? They’re all idiots and trash. Hopeless lives without effort or talent.”
“…”
“Black Mountain Blade was decent enough, but he had no eye for people, so he deserved to die. I ripped his eyes open before I left. Punishment for failing to recognize a master.”
Correction. Jopil, One Question, One Kill, didn’t merely look dangerous.
He was one fucking dangerous bastard.
This guy’s completely insane.
I’d never met anyone like Jopil, either in real life or in a game. That utterly nonchalant tone and manner. He treated people like tools. A psychopath.
“Anyway, what you’re worried about won’t happen. They’re painfully slow. It’ll take them half a shichen to catch up.2 By then, everything will be over.”
One thing was certain. In the ending Jopil had in mind, his own death wasn’t part of it.
“Well?”
“And if I refuse?”
Jopil smiled softly.
“I’ll be disappointed in you. Very disappointed.”
I could more or less picture what would happen if he was disappointed.
“Junior, I bear you no grudge. No—if anything, I’m rather fond of you. Answer a few questions truthfully, and I may even let you go.”
“Wait. Let me go?”
“Yes. I won’t harm you in any way. I’ll send you back in one piece.”
“…Really?”
“I’ll stake my neck on it. Is that enough?”
Sincerity showed on Jopil’s face. Unpredictable psychopath or not, maybe there was a chance we could all make it out alive.
“All right.”
Even if the worst came, all I could do was fight. I’d buy a little time and try to read his openings.
“Good. A friend who listens to reason, hahaha.”
Jopil clapped and laughed. The scabbard hanging at his left hip swayed.
Right-handed. Swordsman.
I continued filing away information in my head.
“First, I’d like to ask your age.”
“Twenty.”
Jopil’s eyes widened.
“My. That realm at twenty. Impressive.”
I’d spent seven years as a Hunter without ever escaping F-rank, yet here in the game, I was treated like a martial arts genius. It was a strange feeling.
“Judging by your clothes, you seem to be from the Jin Family of Taiyuan.”
I nodded readily.
“Supreme First Rate at twenty. You wouldn’t be that famous Heaven Shaking Sword, so… your name?”
“Jin Taekyung.”
“Jin Taekyung. Jin Taekyung. I’ve heard that name somewhere. Ah!”
After mulling it over, Jopil exclaimed.
“The wastrel Third Young Master! That’s you?”
“Not a wastrel. These days, they call me the Hidden Dragon.”
“Puhahaha! I knew it. The straitlaced Jin Family of Taiyuan, resorting to poison? As if. I don’t know who set all this up, but things are getting interesting.”
Jopil regarded me with satisfaction.
“I’d already heard plenty of rumors about you. Was all of that a disguise?”
“…Something like that.”
“Good. A hidden blade, then. I like it. When did you begin learning martial arts?”
“Seven years ago.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie. By Murim standards, a Hunter’s combat methods were a kind of martial art too.
“Seven years. And your master?”
“Don’t have one.”
“No master?”
He studied me for a while, then said,
“Doesn’t seem like a lie.”
“You promised to spare me if I answered honestly. That was your promise, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was. What an absurd yet fascinating story. A direct descendant of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, with no master, reaching that realm at twenty… My, my.”
My mouth was bone-dry. I gripped the spear and scanned Jopil’s body. The openings on him right now were unbelievable. But was what I was seeing really all there was?
He could be baiting me into attacking first.
The thought went no further. Jopil suddenly burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! Good. I like it. I’ll keep my promise.”
He’d keep his promise?
The thing I’d thought impossible was actually happening. I stared at him blankly.
“No need to look at me like that. Truthfully, I wanted very badly to kill you at first… But now that we’ve met, I find myself wanting to watch you a little longer.”
Jopil continued, his voice brimming with goodwill.
“It would be a shame to kill such outstanding talent. Especially under the current circumstances.”
“What circumstances?”
“Ah, you may not know yet. You’ll find out once you return. Go on, then. I hope you’ll have grown a little more by the next time we meet.”
I could go? He meant it?
I backed away without lowering my guard. Jopil merely watched me with a smile.
He looked like a fisherman releasing a minnow.
They say even if you enter a tiger’s den, you’ll survive as long as you keep your wits about you.
Who would have thought Jopil’s unpredictability would become my way out?
Once I’d put a safe distance between us, the breath I’d been holding rushed out. But there was no time to catch it. I had to get out of there even one second sooner.
“We’re moving. Hurry!”
Then—
“Hold on, Junior.”
Jopil looked at me in puzzlement.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean? Going back, like you promised…”
“I only gave you permission to leave. Alone.”
“…What?”
“I may not look it, but I’m in someone’s employ. I have to complete the mission I was given.”
The mission. Don’t tell me…
“The three survivors of the Sakju Branch. And those pieces of trash you call your subordinates. Leave them behind. I should be paid for two days’ work, don’t you think?”
His eyes, clear as a child’s, flashed. The next instant, they became the eyes of a predator.
“I’ll warn you now. If you refuse, I’ll be very disappointed.”
I stared blankly at Jopil, the reconnaissance squad, the young siblings, and the dying Gong Yacheong. There was little time, but my mind churned through the decision dozens of times before one answer finally burst out.
“Then be disappointed, you fucking bastard.”
Jopil laughed savagely.
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